Bitter orange
Citrus aurantium
MediumSecondary
Production
A tough, cold-hardy citrus workhorse: grown for marmalade fruit, fragrant neroli blossom and oil, and used industry-wide as rootstock. Fruit is too sour to eat fresh, and it's thorny.
Tolerances & traits
- Strata
- Medium
- Lifecycle
- Secondary
- Soil preference
- Loam, Sandy
- Soil pH range
- 6 – 7.5
- Min. temperature
- -6°C
- Min. rainfall
- 800 mm/year
- Wind tolerance
- Medium
- Frost tolerance
- Medium
- Growth rate
- Medium
- Irrigation needed
- Medium
How to manage it
Grown for marmalade fruit, fragrant neroli flowers and essential oil, and widely used as citrus rootstock; prune to shape and remove suckers below the graft.
Watch out for
Fruit is too sour to eat fresh. Thorny, and while it's the cold-hardiest common citrus, young trees are still frost-tender and need protection below freezing.
Design your line to see how your land fits Bitter orange.
Start designing your line →Related species